2003 Calendar
What Happened In Year 2003?
- January 10, 2003 – Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois’ death row based on the Jon Burge scandal.
- February 1, 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
- February 20, 2003 – During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the club ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.
- March 17, 2003 – Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Robin Cook, resigns from the British Cabinet in disagreement with government plans for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- March 23, 2003 – In Nasiriyah, Iraq, 11 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company as well as 18 U.S. Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 654 Iraqi combatants are also killed.
- March 24, 2003 – The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.
- March 28, 2003 – In a friendly fire incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard’s 190th Fighter Squadron attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.
- May 30, 2003 – Depayin massacre: at least 70 people associated with the National League for Democracy are killed by government-sponsored mob in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi fled the scene, but is arrested soon afterwards.
- June 22, 2003 – The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska
- August 10, 2003 – The highest temperature ever recorded in the United Kingdom – 38.5 °C in Kent. It is the first time the United Kingdom has recorded a temperature over 100 °F.
- August 11, 2003 – Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
- August 27, 2003 – The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns as a result of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.
- September 10, 2003 – Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden, is fatally stabbed while shopping, and dies the following day.
- September 25, 2003 – A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore Hokkaidō, Japan.
- October 24, 2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight.
- October 26, 2003 – The Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acre, and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.
- November 26, 2003 – Concorde makes its final flight, over Bristol, England.
- December 16, 2003 – President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law establishes the United States’ first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its provisions.
- December 17, 2003 – The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
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